Walking In the Past

I mentioned in a previous post that my uncle (my father's younger brother) and his wife moved into the same apartment building in the city where my grandparents lived. Going there to meet up with them for dinner on Saturday was somewhat odd.

I should say that the neighborhood has changed quite a bit for the better since I had been there. It was a few blocks between the building and where I parked and I noticed many more restaurants and food stores than before as I hustled my ass through the cold wind.

The foyer of the building had been redone since I was there last, but it was still very recognizable. The color scheme around the elevators and in the hallways were the same. The building was financed by the local teachers union and setup as a co-op. As my grandmother was a teacher, she and my grandfather lived there for what seemed like next to nothing. So, of course, there were lots of retired teachers living there.

My uncle's place is on a different floor than my grandparents' was, but the place was unmistakable and brought back a lot of good memories. I remember watching fireworks from their roof (32 stories up) and swimming in the rooftop pool as a kid.

One good thing that I noticed was that it didn't smell like like a well-cleaned nursing home, nor did I hear TVs being blasted at full volume. Perhaps there are fewer old folks there than before?

Getting ready to leave my aunt and uncle's place yesterday, it occurred to me that I would never be in that house again. It was always the central spot for happenings on my mom's side of the family and it will be weird not going there after weddings, funerals, anniversaries, etc. Mentioning this to my cousin, we talked about the fun stuff we did as kids at the different aunt's and uncle's houses. One time we had so many people at my house, a bunch of us slept in a trailer my parents borrowed from a friend. I told her that if this summer we run into that problem for my parents 50th anniversary that her son and the HB could camp in the backyard. Good times, past and future.